Richard Thompson Band: Live at Celtic Connections

In a career spanning nearly half a century, it wouldn't be unforgivable to put out the occasional duff; with a repertoire of something like 400 original songs, it wouldn't be amiss to expect a writer's pen to dull a tad with age; and with an early career as significant as Richard Thompson's, it wouldn't be beyond the pale to think that the best part of his career is behind him. But as he approaches 63, the British singer/songwriter/guitarist isn't just at the top of his game, he's released one of the best albums of his career with Dream Attic (Shout! Factory, 2010). In an unusual move for Thompson, this baker's dozen of new originals was recorded live, garnering a Grammy nomination in addition to significant critical acclaim. Not too shabby for a writer who, in his humorous, semi-autobiographical 1991 song "Now That I Am Dead" opined:

Now that I have kicked the Rolling Stone has picked my records as the best there be;

Now that I am boxed, they say my music rocks, it's taken on a new appeal; Too bad my genius was discovered after my coffin had been covered.

The truth is that Thompson's classic Shoot Out the Lights (Rhino, 1982), his last record with soon-to-be-ex-wife Linda, was cited as #9 on Rolling Stone's "Top 100 Albums of the 1980s," despite sales that were dwarfed by its surrounding rock icons brethren. But if so many artists who achieved massive visibility early in their careers found it a challenge to, if not better, at least equal their early success, Thompson has chosen a different path. He's never had a million seller to top; instead, year-after-year, he has continued to release albums possessed of sharp insight and profound emotional depth, building a discography and career of remarkable consistency. With the number of well-known songs he's now written, he could at this stage make a perfectly good living as a nostalgia act, touring well-known songs like "Shoot Out the Lights," "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight" and "For Shame of Doing Wrong," in addition to songs he wrote as a charter member of seminal British folk-rock group Fairport Convention, like "Meet on the Ledge" and "Now Be Thankful" (the latter co-written with fiddler Dave Swarbrick).

Thompson continues to dig deep into his back catalog when he tours, but he continues to weight just as heavily on new material. It should come as no particular surprise, then, that Live at Celtic Connections, recorded during his 2011 British tour in support of Dream Attic, features plenty of material from an album already road-tested it in its entirety by his crack quintet. The first of the two sets that comprise this two-plus hour performance runs the entire album down, in fact, with the exception of the album's penultimate rocker, "Bad Again," with the balance of the performance a walk through Thompson's entire career"our greatest hits, small 'h,'" Thompson quips after a smoking set-opener, "The Money Shuffle." Thompson digs right back to his massively unsuccessful solo debut, Henry the Human Fly (Island, 1972) for the Celtic rocker "The Angels Took My Racehorse Away," and moves forward to the thundering, four-on-the-floor "I'll Never Give Up," from Dream Attic's immediate predecessor, Sweet Warrior (Shout! Factory, 2007).

If Thompson has largely left his British musical partners behindthough not entirely, the guitarist being a regular guest at Fairport Convention's annual Cropredy Festivalhe's still working with one musician that dates back to Shoot Out the Lights and the legendary tour (or more accurately, according to his supporting musicians, tour from hell) that followed its release with the now-separated Thompsons. Pete Zorn played bass on that record and tour, but by the time of its follow-up, Hand of Kindness (Hannibal, 1983) he'd switched to horns, and in the ensuing years and tours he's turned into a demonic multi-instrumentalist, adding flute, mandolin and guitar to his résumé. Here, in combination with violinist/mandolinist Joel Zifkin, Zorn's sopranino sax manages to sound more like a crumhorn on the visceral "Demon in Her Dancing Shoes," while screaming with grit and grease on tenor on Hand of Kindness' Zydeco-infused "Tear Stained Letter," the ten-minute set closer that's almost as exciting from the living room couch as it must have been at Glasgow's Celtic Connection.

I grew up listening to my father's Jazz records and listening to radio. My dad was a musician for many years as a vocalist, bassist and drummer. His two uncles played in the Symphony of Reggio Calabria back in Italy

I grew up listening to my father's Jazz records and listening to radio. My dad was a musician for many years as a vocalist, bassist and drummer. His two uncles played in the Symphony of Reggio Calabria back in Italy. So music and jazz specifically have been a part of me since I was born. I love and perform in all styles of music from around the world. Improvisation in jazz is what drew me in, and still does as well as other genres that feature improvisation. A group of great musicians expressing themselves as one is the hallmark of great jazz and in fact all great music.